Business, First Nations seek ways to share in prosperity

Panel discussions will focus on success stories to develop a template for interaction

Chief Councillor of the Haisla Council Ellis Ross was in Vancouver, November 26th, for meetings. The Haisla are the First Nations in the Kitimat area.

Photograph by: Ward Perrin
, Vancouver Sun

If companies want to know the secret of doing business with First Nations, the first thing to learn is that it’s not all about money.

That’s the message Haisla chief councillor Ellis Ross will be taking to a business-First Nations symposium in Vancouver Tuesday.

The daylong session is a joint venture between the B.C. Business Council and the B.C. Aboriginal and Investment Council. The goal is to present case studies of success stories that will be the foundation for a handbook that is expected to be completed by March 2013.

There’s no one template that leads to success, said Ross, who is co-chair of the council, but there is a common thread that is part of First Nations’ business aspirations: the environmental, social and cultural issues.

“If you address them on their level, it does lead to a successful project,” Ross said. “There is an economic component to economic development that’s covered off in aboriginal rights and title case law, but that’s really not the approach at all that First Nations take.

“The Haisla, for example, want to to see the environmental question answered first and foremost, before you even discuss other issues. And that’s where some companies make a mistake in thinking all we are looking for is a paycheque.”

The Haisla, whose territory surrounds the City of Kitimat, have supported liquefied natural gas projects and have partnered with one company to develop their own LNG plant.

In addresses Ross has given to business groups, he frequently includes his own telephone number in his presentation as part of his message that First Nations are interested in doing business.

“If you address our fundamental concerns, yeah, we are open for business,” he said.

First Nations are interested in joint venturing opportunities, contracting opportunities and other business opportunities, he said.

“It’s a snowball approach with us — if you get over our environmental issues first.”

The symposium, Success Through Sharing, will bring business and First Nations partners together on panels where they will share their experiences from both sides of the table.

“It’s about sending a message to the world that there is a way to do business with First Nations, if it is done correctly,” Ross said.

“You are dealing with economic certainty around aboriginal rights and title, but underneath that there are ways to talk to First Nations, to interact with them and negotiate with them, and that’s what we want to highlight.”

He described LNG projects and LNG pipelines, forestry and mining projects as examples that have largely obtained First Nations’ support. He said there are well-publicized examples of how not to approach First Nations, a reference to the unrest that Enbridge’s Northern Gateway project has aroused among First Nations along the proposed oilsands pipeline route. Enbridge offered revenues and set a deadline for accepting its offer.

Ellis said the landscape is changing not only in terms of how business approaches First Nations but how First Nations approach business,

“Ten years ago, we didn’t have a voice. We had a voice but it was only in the courts and nobody wins in the courts.”

The symposium is part of an Aboriginal Business and Investment Council initiative to broaden the voice First Nations have in business, Ross said. The council, established last year by the B.C. government, has a mandate of identifying alternative business models that encourage economic development in aboriginal communities and providing investors with the tools they need to engage with First Nations.

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